Peace Council: 'Let’s learn from 2012 elections'

The Chairman of National Peace Council Most Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Asante has expressed worry over entrenched positions taken by some political parties in relation to next year’s election.

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) have stuck to their grounds in the debate over the sanctity and integrity of the 2012 electoral roll. While the NPP wants a new one compiled, the NDC insists cleaning the current one and reusing it for 2016 is the way to go.

The NPP claims the present register has 76,000 Togolese on it. Its Flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo has also claimed the register is bloated by over two million names.

The Peace Council has begun collating views from political parties, civil society groups and individuals on how to ensure a peaceful 2016 election.

The exercise, taking place in the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua, is part of the Council’s efforts at taking a retrospective look at occurrences, which nearly marred the 2012 general elections, and how that can guide the country in next year’s elections.

Speaking to Journalists Tuesday, Most Reverend Asante wondered: “Are we going to be fortunate 2016?” adding: “We need to sit back and learn from what happened in 2012; the successes and the challenges that confronted us in 2012, we need to talk about that and not just talk about it; we need to say to ourselves: ‘What can we do to avoid those challenges?’”

He said at the end of the exercise, political parties should be able to learn from each other, diagnose the problems of the 2012 elections, and identify measures to ensure peaceful electioneering and peaceful elections in 2016.

The National Peace Council (NPC) is an independent statutory national peace institution established by Act 818 of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, named ‘The National Peace Council Act, 2011’.

The core function of the Council is to facilitate and develop mechanisms to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts, and to build sustainable peace in Ghana.